Maxwell John Meyer is strong and determined -- has been his whole life. We know that God gave him that strength and determination to help him on his journey. Max was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia in January of 2009. He underwent chemotherapy in March '09 and had a bone marrow transplant from his baby sister, Ellee, on April 1, 2009. This is his story. God, please heal him and keep him safe.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

It's day +966 and we just wanted to send out a quick Happy Thanksgiving note to all of you! We have so much to be grateful for this year...we are overwhelmed with gratitude! At Max's most recent bi-monthly appointment last Friday, we received exceptionally good news from Dr. Davies. She has begun the wean of Max's cyclosporine! You may know that Matt and I have been anxious about this for some time and have taken her advice to be patient and wait for the right time. Apparently, to our surprise, this is it!! The road ahead is still unknown but, Dr. Davies assured us that she does not anticipate that we will see issues with the wean. It will be very, very slow. We will go down 0.2 ml every 2 months and watch his progress. If all goes smoothly, he should be done with it within about 18 months. A long time but, fabulous news. There may be points where we have to pause for longer than 2 months and watch things for a bit and there may even be times when we need to go back up on the dose for a bit. But, no matter what, this is progress...real progress for Max.

It is awesome and truly miraculous for us to be able to imagine a future for Max without cyclosporine, with immunizations and with good health again. This latest step is taking us in that direction. We are beginning to "tie the bow" on the top of the BMT package.

Thus, as we head in to Thanksgiving, we are filled with immense gratitude. Our Max is continuing to make fabulous progress, we are all together to celebrate and relax on this wonderful holiday and life is just beyond great!

I read something recently from one of the support organizations that we have found to be extremely helpful over the past few years, BMTInfoNet.org. It was written by their founder, a 22-year transplant survivor and was called "From Hope, Springs Life". I found it to be very profound and thought I'd share it with all of you:

It started with Hope. Hope that a bone marrow, stem cell or cord blood transplant could conquer a life-threatening disease.

Then came Courage. The Courage to undergo one of the most difficult medical procedures imaginable.

And finally, for so many, new Life. A Life full of opportunity to enjoy more precious days with family and friends.....to see your child thrive, to kiss a new grandchild, to grow old together with someone you love.

This is the promise of transplant.

Pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?

We are all so excited for tomorrow! The boys are mostly looking forward to their Turkey Bowl with all of the Meyer cousins and uncles at Turpin High School's football field. I am greatly looking forward to sharing our gratitude by giving back to the families of the Cancer & Blood Diseases Institute with a Max's Meals Thanksgiving Luncheon tomorrow. We are all looking forward to spending time together relaxing and enjoying the blessing of family. And to top all of this off, my brother, Mike and his wife, Heidi just welcomed their third child into the family this morning! We are thrilled to have a new neice and Sherwin family member and can't wait to meet her down in Morgantown, West Virginia soon! Another Thanksgiving blessing!

We are grateful to all of you for your continued support and love and wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!